Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

First I must thank everyone who has helped me over the last three years with the rebuild of my Sprint coupe. Without your help the task of assembling a car that had been completely dismantled since 1977 would have been much, much harder.

Today I took it bright and early down to the local garage for it's first test for 38 years. Since everything is new or reconditioned, I wasn't too surprised that it passed easily. The reaction of the mechanics was most gratifying as they all clustered underneath it on the lift to exclaim over the details of its construction. For a small town workshop that usually deals with small modern cars, this was something quite out of the ordinary.

I won't be getting it taxed until May since I won't have the opportunity to use it for most of the rest of April, and anyway it really needs a session on a rolling road to get it running properly. That is booked up for the first week in May. Then I can start to enjoy a whole new experience for me - Elan motoring. Can't wait.

Mike

looks great and you will enjoy driving as much as working on it

The Spyder chassis is much nicer to look at from underneath the car than the standard Lotus chassis - I had the same reaction from the inspection mechanics when i had my Plus 2 inspected many years ago after I had replaced the chassis and moved it to historic car registration here.

cheers
Rohan

Mike
Surely the Car is Tax Exempt as long as you have it registered as "Historic" in the Tax Class there is nothing to pay.

It isn't registered as Historic yet as it hasn't been taxed at all for 38 years, so it isn't even on SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification for the benefit of non-UK readers). On the V5c it is classed as "Not Licensed". My first job is to get it transferred to Historic Vehicle status. I realise there is no money to pay, but it still has to be "taxed" or licensed to make it legal for the road.

Mike

Don't forget agreed value insurance too. Applying for historic shouldn't be a problem

Congratulations Mike - really nice job.
Kev.

Great job Mike look spot on. ive just had my Europa classified as Historic. You will need your MOT. I was told that you could di it at the post office by the DVLA. I went into the post office but the historic item did not show up on their computer so posted it off to Swansea. They send your MOT back separately (about 2 weeks)
happy motoring
Stuart

Looks great! Well done... just in time for summer motoring...

Mike,

It looks lovely, well done, you have made much better progress than I am.

Richard Hawkins

Looks great, congratulations on completing the job. Let us know how you get on with the rolling road. My +2 is hopefully 3 months away from MoT and I will need to do the same, as I replaced the cylinder head and the cams so the carb jets will need tweaking. I'm aware you are in Scotland and I'm in Cheshire, but there aren't too many places that can do a good job!
Andy Watts

Congratulations Mike. Car looks great. Enjoy the road!

Stu

Mike,

Well done with the rebuild, it looks really neat.

My car is the same year as yours, but it had black rims ?

I notice yours are Silver, any reason why?

Enjoy driving for fun!

Regards,

Phil.

You are right, the Sprint should have black wheels with chrome rings. As I didn't have the rings, I thought they would look better silver. I'm not one who cares too much about total originality. My car has many non-standard features.

However, I have now bought some stainless steel rings and so intend to paint the wheels gloss black soon.

Mike

Well done! Looks fabulous!!!!

Good job- looks great.